Detailed Procedure To Set Up Your Own WordPress Hosting Platform On Ubuntu Or Debian Platform!

Whether you are an individual or a small business that wants to have your own website, you have multiple options to go with. You will have ready-to-use hosting services and a lot of web design and development consultants with a lot of exciting offers. Well, you can use them. We are not against using those services. However, we also urge you to learn, and if possible, set up your own WordPress hosting platform either for your primary website or just to create a standby website just in case of disasters. In our experience, we can definitely say that every website owner will come across a situation at least once in his life where he realizes that he should have learned to set up his own WordPress hosting platform. So, before getting too late. Let’s learn how to set up your own WordPress hosting platform either on a local server or a cloud platform.

We suggest you set up your own hosting platform on a cloud platform rather than setting up on a local server. However, the procedure is the same. If you have tight pockets, then you can try this out on a local server. Then you can move towards the cloud.

Why Should You Set Up Your Own WordPress Hosting Platform?

As we said earlier, you can go with any of the best online hosting platforms. However, we also recommend having your own too. It gives a lot of freedom, control, and transparency. Let’s see the benefits of having your own hosting platform.

Whatever may be the reason, it is better to have your own hosting platform as a DR setup.

There are some downsides as well:

Keeping all these disadvantages, especially for small businesses or individual website owners, we recommend buying an online hosting platform for your primary site. And build a copy of that on your own hosting platform.

Prerequisites To Set up Your Own WordPress Hosting Platform:

The prerequisites are simple. The one must-have thing is a server, no matter whether on-premises or on the cloud. When we say server, we are not talking about a big-size server most likely deployed in data centers. You can have a small system that has single-core processors, 1 GB of RAM, with 10 GB of disk storage. It is up to you how much you can spend on hardware. You do not need to worry about the software requirements. The software we are going to use here is all open-source. No additional cost is required for the software. If you want to buy premium plugins for your WordPress, then it’s your decision.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS) written in PHP language. WordPress is one of the best and most used website builders today. It can be used to build a blog, e-commerce, business, or portfolio website. Its ease of use, highly customizable features, tons of plugins, and themes, cost-free, and platform flexibility have captured more than 35% of the website hosting landscape.

How do WordPress Websites work?

Before we jump right into setting up the WordPress hosting platform, we should urge to learn how WordPress works in the background. This will help a lot to work on the production deployments. Please don’t skip this section as you are not going to get this information on most of the blog posts. People just skip this and just start building WordPress without prior knowledge.

WordPress needs three main components to work:

To answer How to do WordPress Websites work in the background:

How To Set Up Your Own WordPress Hosting Platform On Ubuntu Or Debian Platform?

You might have seen many blog posts on how to install WordPress on Linux, Windows, Mac, and cloud platforms. However, This blog is not just limited to the installation of WordPress on your favorite platform. It shows you how to set up your own hosting platform using WordPress, either on a local server or cloud platform. We have divided this procedure into six sub-sections to make you understand the process in a better way.

Step 1. 1st Section: Install the services required to run the WordPress:

In the first section, we will install MySQL, PHP, and Nginx web servers.
Before that let’s start by updating the repositories and installing new packages.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2. Install MySQL & PHP packages

Install these four packages:1. mysql-server2. php-mysql3. php-fpm4. monit

$ sudo apt install mysql-server php-mysql php-fpm monit

Step 3. Add PPA repository for Nginx

The purpose of adding the PPA repositories are to have the latest available version of Nginx.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nginx/stable && sudo apt update

Step 4. Install Nginx

$ sudo apt install nginx

Step 5. Enable and check the status of mysql php-sql monit

$ sudo systemctl start mysql nginx php7.4-fpm monit
$ sudo systemctl enable mysql nginx php7.4-fpm monit
$ sudo systemctl status mysql nginx php7.4-fpm monit | grep Active

Step 6. 2nd Section: Configure nginx.conf file:

Switch to the superuser and make a copy of nginix.conf file. Then create a new nginx.conf file in the same directory.

$ sudo su
# cd etc/nginx/
# mv etc/nginx/nginx.conf etc/nginx/nginx.conf.original
# nano etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Step 7. Update this content in the nginx.conf file

user www-data;
worker_processes auto;

pid /run/nginx.pid;

events {
worker_connections 1024;
}

http {
include mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;

#log_format main ‘$remote_addr – $remote_user [$time_local] “$request” ‘
# ‘$status $body_bytes_sent “$http_referer” ‘
# ‘”$http_user_agent” “$http_x_forwarded_for”‘;
error_log /var/log/nginx_error.log error;
#access_log logs/access.log main;

sendfile on;
#tcp_nopush on;

keepalive_timeout 65;

# SSL
ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # no sslv3 (poodle etc.)
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

# Gzip Settings
gzip on;
gzip_disable “msie6”;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_min_length 512;
gzip_types text/plain text/html application/x-javascript text/javascript application/javascript text/xml text/css application/font-sfnt;

fastcgi_cache_path /usr/share/nginx/cache/fcgi levels=1:2 keys_zone=microcache:10m max_size=1024m inactive=1h;

include etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
include etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

Step 8. Create casheing file and test the nginx configurations

# mkdir -p /usr/share/nginx/cache/fcgi
# nginx -t

Step 9. 3rd Section: Set up PHP interpreter:

To set up a PHP interpreter, some PHP packages are required to install. Let’s update the repository before installing PHP packages.

# apt update

Step 10. Install some of these PHP extension packages required to set up PHP interpreter

Install these packages:1. php-json2. php-xmlrpc 3.3. php-curl4. php-gd5. php-xml6. php-mbstring

# apt install php-json php-xmlrpc php-curl php-gd php-xml php-mbstring

Step 11. Set up php-interpreter configuration file

PHP interpreter is a middle entity that sits between a web server and a PHP application. It is mandatory to set up a PHP interpreter to function in WordPress.
Take a backup of php-fpm.conf and create a new php-fpm.conf file.

# mkdir /var/run/php-fpm
# cd etc/php/7.4/fpm/
# cp php-fpm.conf php-fpm.conf.orig
# echo “” > php-fpm.conf
# nano etc/php/7.4/fpm/php-fpm.conf

Step 12. Content of php-fpm.conf file

php-fpm is a global interpreter file in which we should have set the path in which we are going to have the default pool configuration for each website.

[global]
pid = /run/php/php7.4-fpm.pid
error_log = /var/log/php-fpm.log
include=etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d/*.conf

Step 13. Create a new thesecmaster.conf file

In previous step, we have configured the pool PHP interpreter file. In this step we will configure the default PHP pool per site file.

# nano etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d/thesecmaster.conf

This file let you configure how many requests, process, etc can handle simultaneously, the values are really depends on the hardware resources. If you have a server with more number of RAM and processor then you can increase the values to the extent.

[thesecmaster]
listen = /var/run/php/thesecmaster.sock
listen.owner = arunkl
listen.group = www-data
listen.mode = 0660
user = arunkl
group = www-data
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 75
pm.start_servers = 8
pm.min_spare_servers = 5
pm.max_spare_servers = 20
pm.max_requests = 500

php_admin_value[upload_max_filesize] = 10G
php_admin_value[error_log] = /home/arunkl/logs/phpfpm_error.log
php_admin_value[open_basedir] = /home/arunkl:/tmp

Step 14. Content of top-level PHP configuration file php.ini file

This is the last process to set up a PHP interpreter. This file has a plethora of options to set. Just copy this content in your php.ini file. If you know more about it in this file, just put your queries in the comments section below in the post.

# mv etc/php/7.4/fpm/php.ini php.ini.orig
# nano etc/php/7.4/fpm/php.ini

Step 15. Content of php.ini file

[PHP]
engine = On
short_open_tag = Off
asp_tags = Off
precision = 14
output_buffering = 4096
zlib.output_compression = Off
implicit_flush = Off
unserialize_callback_func =
serialize_precision = 17
disable_functions =
disable_classes =
zend.enable_gc = On
expose_php = Off
max_execution_time = 30
max_input_time = 60
memory_limit = 128M
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT
display_errors = Off
display_startup_errors = Off
log_errors = On
log_errors_max_len = 1024
ignore_repeated_errors = Off
ignore_repeated_source = Off
report_memleaks = On
track_errors = Off
html_errors = On
variables_order = “GPCS”
request_order = “GP”
register_argc_argv = Off
auto_globals_jit = On
post_max_size = 8M
auto_prepend_file =
auto_append_file =
default_mimetype = “text/html”
default_charset = “UTF-8”
doc_root =
user_dir =
enable_dl = Off
file_uploads = On
upload_max_filesize = 25M
max_file_uploads = 20
allow_url_fopen = On
allow_url_include = Off
default_socket_timeout = 60
[CLI Server]
cli_server.color = On
[Date]
[filter]
[iconv]
[intl]
[sqlite]
[sqlite3]
[Pcre]
[Pdo]
[Pdo_mysql]
pdo_mysql.cache_size = 2000
pdo_mysql.default_socket=
[Phar]
[mail function]
SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25
mail.add_x_header = On
[SQL]
sql.safe_mode = Off
[ODBC]
odbc.allow_persistent = On
odbc.check_persistent = On
odbc.max_persistent = -1
odbc.max_links = -1
odbc.defaultlrl = 4096
odbc.defaultbinmode = 1
[Interbase]
ibase.allow_persistent = 1
ibase.max_persistent = -1
ibase.max_links = -1
ibase.timestampformat = “%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S”
ibase.dateformat = “%Y-%m-%d”
ibase.timeformat = “%H:%M:%S”
[MySQL]
mysql.allow_local_infile = On
mysql.allow_persistent = On
mysql.cache_size = 2000
mysql.max_persistent = -1
mysql.max_links = -1
mysql.default_port =
mysql.default_socket =
mysql.default_host =
mysql.default_user =
mysql.default_password =
mysql.connect_timeout = 60
mysql.trace_mode = Off
[MySQLi]
mysqli.max_persistent = -1
mysqli.allow_persistent = On
mysqli.max_links = -1
mysqli.cache_size = 2000
mysqli.default_port = 3306
mysqli.default_socket =
mysqli.default_host =
mysqli.default_user =
mysqli.default_pw =
mysqli.reconnect = Off
[mysqlnd]
mysqlnd.collect_statistics = On
mysqlnd.collect_memory_statistics = Off
[OCI8]
[PostgreSQL]
pgsql.allow_persistent = On
pgsql.auto_reset_persistent = Off
pgsql.max_persistent = -1
pgsql.max_links = -1
pgsql.ignore_notice = 0
pgsql.log_notice = 0
[Sybase-CT]
sybct.allow_persistent = On
sybct.max_persistent = -1
sybct.max_links = -1
sybct.min_server_severity = 10
sybct.min_client_severity = 10
[bcmath]
bcmath.scale = 0
[browscap]
[Session]
session.save_handler = files
session.use_strict_mode = 0
session.use_cookies = 1
session.use_only_cookies = 1
session.name = PHPSESSID
session.auto_start = 0
session.cookie_lifetime = 0
session.cookie_path = /
session.cookie_domain =
session.cookie_httponly =
session.serialize_handler = php
session.gc_probability = 1
session.gc_divisor = 1000
session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440
session.referer_check =
session.cache_limiter = nocache
session.cache_expire = 180
session.use_trans_sid = 0
session.hash_function = 0
session.hash_bits_per_character = 5
url_rewriter.tags = “a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=fakeentry”
[MSSQL]
mssql.allow_persistent = On
mssql.max_persistent = -1
mssql.max_links = -1
mssql.min_error_severity = 10
mssql.min_message_severity = 10
mssql.compatibility_mode = Off
mssql.secure_connection = Off
[Assertion]
[COM]
[mbstring]
[gd]
[exif]
[Tidy]
tidy.clean_output = Off
[soap]
soap.wsdl_cache_enabled=1
soap.wsdl_cache_dir=”/tmp”
soap.wsdl_cache_ttl=86400
soap.wsdl_cache_limit = 5
[sysvshm]
[ldap]
ldap.max_links = -1
[dba]
[opcache]
[curl]
[openssl]

Step 16. 4th Section: Set up mysql security:

WordPress stores all the media files, posts, comments, themes, and such resources will store in a relational database format. So MySQL is required to set up WordPress. Setting up MySQL is a very simple task, however, setting up securely is also a simple task,the for that you should know certain things to implement. Let’s see how to set up MySQL securely.
The first thing when it comes to security is passwords. You should have a strong difficult to guess strong password. You can use this command to create a password just on your server.
Make a note of this password. You should use this in the next step.

# echo -n @ && cat /dev/urandom | env LC_CTYPE=C tr -dc [:alnum:] | head -c 15 && echo

Step 17. Set up mysql with security

You should install mysql-client program on your server to set up MySQL Client. But, before that, it is always good to update the repository and upgrade the patches. After you install the MySQL Client, find the mysql_secure_installation file and run it to set up the MySQL Client. Make a note of the random string that you generated in the previous step to use as the password for the database user.

# sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
# apt install mysql-client
# locate mysql_secure_installation
# /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

# systemctl restart mysql

Step 18. 5th Section: Set up WordPress Application:

There are a few things that are required to be set up before installing WordPress.1. You should have a Nginx virtual host file for your site.2. Create a dedicated user for your site (optional..)3. Create a database and DB user in MySQL
Add this content to your site configuration file.


# nano etc/nginx/conf.d/thesecmaster.conf

server {
listen 80;
server_name www.thesecmaster.local;

client_max_body_size 20m;

index index.php index.html index.htm;
root /home/arunkl/public_html;

location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;
}

# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server
location ~ \.php$ {
# Basic
try_files $uri =404;
fastcgi_index index.php;

# Create a no cache flag
set $no_cache “”;

# Don’t ever cache POSTs
if ($request_method = POST) {
set $no_cache 1;
}

# Admin stuff should not be cached
if ($request_uri ~* “/(wp-admin/|wp-login.php)”) {
set $no_cache 1;
}

# WooCommerce stuff should not be cached
if ($request_uri ~* “/store.*|/cart.*|/my-account.*|/checkout.*|/addons.*”) {
set $no_cache 1;
}

# If we are the admin, make sure nothing
# gets cached, so no weird stuff will happen
if ($http_cookie ~* “wordpress_logged_in_”) {
set $no_cache 1;
}

# Cache and cache bypass handling
fastcgi_no_cache $no_cache;
fastcgi_cache_bypass $no_cache;
fastcgi_cache microcache;
fastcgi_cache_key $scheme$request_method$server_name$request_uri$args;
fastcgi_cache_valid 200 60m;
fastcgi_cache_valid 404 10m;
fastcgi_cache_use_stale updating;


# General FastCGI handling
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/thesecmaster.sock;
fastcgi_pass_header Set-Cookie;
fastcgi_pass_header Cookie;
fastcgi_ignore_headers Cache-Control Expires Set-Cookie;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
include fastcgi_params;
}

location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|woff|ttf|svg|otf)$ {
expires 30d;
add_header Pragma public;
add_header Cache-Control “public”;
access_log off;
}

# deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache’s document root
# concurs with nginx’s one
#
#location ~ /\.ht {
# deny all;
#}
}

server {
listen 80;
server_name thesecmaster.local;
rewrite ^/(.*)$ http://www.thesecmaster.local/$1 permanent;
}

Step 19. Remove default nginx site

Step 20. Create a dedicated user for your site

Ideally, in a standard shared WordPress hosting platform, dedicated user accounts are created for their websites. technically, A dedicated user is required when you are setting up a shared hosting platform. If you are going to have only one site on your server. this may not be required.
Create a public_html directory and log files for your site and set the user permission.

# mkdir /home/arunkl/logs public_html
# chown -R arunkl:arunkl /home/arunkl/logs public_html/

Step 21. Create a database and DB user in MySQL

This is the last step in this section. Login to MySQL as a root, create a database for your site, create a user for the database, grant database access to the user, at last, publish the changes then exit from MySQL.

# mysql -u root -p

mysql> CREATE DATABASE thesecmaster;
mysql> CREATE USER ‘arunkl’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘XXXXXXXXXX’;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON thesecmaster.* TO arunkl@localhost;
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> exit

Step 22. 6th Section: Install WordPress:

This is an important section of the process. In this section, we will see how to install and set up a WordPress application for your hosting platform.

Download WordPress application from wordpress.org to public_html directory.

$ cd /home/arunkl/public_html/
$ wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

Step 23. Unzip the WordPress file and remove the downloaded archive file

$ tar zxf latest.tar.gz
$ rm latest.tar.gz

Step 24. Move the unzipped content to public_html directory

$ mv wordpress/* /home/arunkl/public_html

Step 25. Restart php7.4-fpm mysql nginx

Run this command to restart the php-fpm, mysql, and nginx services.

$ systemctal restart php7.4-fpm mysql nginx

Step 26. Check the IP address

Note down the IP address of your server. If you are on cloud server. you should note down the public IP of your cloud server. In our demo, as we are on our local server, we have taken the system IP address using ifconfig command.

$ sudo ifconfig

Step 27. Edit the host file to configure the site name

Edit the host file and map the system IP with your site name. This will enable you to use the website name directly on your browser instead of your IP address.

$ sudo etc/hosts

Step 28. 7th Section: Install WordPress:

In this last section, we will see how to access WordPress and set up login.
1. Try accessing your WordPress with your IP or site name.
http://192.168.0.112/wp-admin/
or
http://thesecmaster.local/wp-admin

You will be greeted with a welcome screen with a language selection option. Select your language. Then click next.
2. In the next step. you should input these four things:
A. Database Name:B. Database User Name:C. Password:D. Database Host:E. Database Table Prefix:

Note: Database Table Prefix is something to distinguish the table of multiple sites in case of multi-site deployment. You can leave the default value in case of single-site deployment.
3. After submitting the above five things, if everything goes well, you will be asked to set up a user account to log in to WordPress.
A. Site Title:B. Username:C. Password;D. Your Email:E. Search Engine Visibility:

Note: Chick the Search Engine Visibility option if you are going to set up a public website.
4. After creating a user account for your WordPress. It prompts you to login. WordPress will greet you with this screen after your successful login.

Alright, now you have your WordPress site on your own hosting platform. This is how you can set up your own hosting platform. This shouldn’t be your destination. This is not the end. In fact, this is the beginning of your hosting platform. We will publish the things you should need to do in the upcoming posts. We are going to cover how to secure, take backup, automate, monitor, and migrate your WordPress site from one WordPress platform to another.

Please be with us and follow us for more information.

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